Presenting a neo-Calvinist account of human moral experience, this book is an advance upon the tradition of Augustinian moral theology.
The first two chapters are theological interpretations of Genesis 2:17 and 3:6 respectively. Chapter 3 approaches the neo-Calvinist notion of God as absolute person through a consideration of theologies of human reason and history. Chapter 4 considers the relationship between absolute person and classical trinitarianism, and the significance of absolute person for accommodation, hermeneutics, and the Creator/creature relation and distinction. The fifth chapter considers the role of the incarnation in Bavinck's thought, and thus provides a backdrop for reflection upon absolute person from a biblical theological point of view.
Shannon concludes with the claim that, according to the Bavincks, Vos, and Van Til, human moral experience is the product of a divine self-expression primarily in the Son.
Nathan Shannon's erudite study demonstrates how neo-Calvinism affirms that the history of redemptive economy presupposes both divine immutability and actual relationality in God's triune essence. This is an encouraging breakthrough for readers wearied by false dichotomies between orthodoxy and ideas that are often thought to be modern inventions.